Ready, Study, Go.

Hey! What’s up? Getting ready for your year abroad? No? Really? You have a problem.LOL.  Joking.

You are supposed to be preparing your year abroad. The student meeting for such an event in your life takes place in March. In fact there are a couple of meeting you cannot miss. But before these meeting you must your destination. Let’s move backwards in time and explain what future year-abroad students have to do in order to spend one year in one of the most exciting experience in your whole life.

Firstly, appliers for the year abroad have to choose between three destinations. Then a meeting about October or November will take place in order. By January, with your mind made up, you’ll have to submit your preference form with the three chosen cities. And that’s all for the moment until you know where are you going. But, where are you going? Are you going to the place you like? Why aren’t you going to your first preference?

It is possible that these questions can come to your mind. Maybe you are disappointed, but don’t worry! Your other options are as good as the first one! Believe me. I had a similar experience and many people in Alicante are disappointed...but, in the end, they don’t regret at all! Actually they have had a better time that the one they would have in their first option!

You must know that there are some criteria required so that you can obtain your right choice.

First of all, you must choose a place with a philology-related programme or with a syllabus with modules of translation or interpreting (as Alicante does).

Then, if you are a LCS student, your year abroad must take place in your third year. Also marks are taken into account, so the most you study, the more possibilities you have to go where you want!

When you know where are you going to spend your year abroad there are some forms you have to submit yes, you’ll spend your time among paper mountains in the HUB and spend nights by candlelight filling forms. These forms are the same as Spanish students have to submit:

·         Learning agreement: this document compares the modules of both countries in order that you know what are you studying and if it is related to what you must have studied according to your syllabus or your work field.

·         Contract: the money you receive comes from the Central Student Finance.

·         Arrival/Departure form

·         Questionnaire about your experience: you will be received two questionnaires along your year abroad o let know your home university how you are improving your skills in the language of the country you are living for a year.

And that’s all. If you have any doubts you can address to the Year Abroad Office.

What is an Erasmus? Which are the differences between a Year Abroad?

Hey everybody! Today we are here to solve some problems that are keeping you awake at night. If you are here, maybe you already know what the word “Erasmus” means or maybe you are just gossip people you are just here to discover more about this process.

First of all, you should know that “Erasmus” implicitly means “Europe”, why? Because all of the destinations are allowed to choose belong to the EU. Here is one of the main differences between it and the Year Abroad, with the second one you are allowed to choose whatever you want among the millions, well billions offered (I’m sure there aren’t that many offered, but it sounds epic, right?) around the world.

Something else that distinguishes an Erasmus from a Year Abroad is that the Year Abroad is COMPULSORY, meaning, you can choose to apply for an Erasmus year, but you have to apply for the Year Abroad.

Most of you would be wondering... what am I supposed to do in my Erasmus/Year Abroad? Well, when your Erasmus application is accepted,  you will be accepted into a university out of the three that you previously chose. Then, that means that you are supposed to study, well, not that much ;-). While when you go on Year Abroad, you will be able to choose among three different options: teaching, assistance or study, there’s an advantage. 

Another of the differences is the time of stay. Both are supposed to be in your 3^rd year of studies but just the Erasmus is allowed for less than a year, for one semester. Although, some students that are enrolled in a three-year degree are allowed to have a “Semester Abroad”.


And that's it :-) In the next post we will try to help you with any doubts and if you just want to know a little bit more on any topic just ask us and tell us you opinion.

Hi!

Now you can find and watch the video 'University Life Song' in this blog. It is a concentrated summary of the best you can find in Alicante told in such a funny and amusing way.

This video is a project of Elena Caballero, Aitana Hernández y Laura del Barco.

Enjoy!

Hereby this blog is born! Hurrah! Anyway.

Hi there! Now you may think ‘What am I reading? Why?’  If you are reading this blog you may be planning your year abroad in Alicante, Spain.

But do you know everything about living abroad? What about your destination? Where will you live? How are you managing to live in a city far from your home and friends?

Well, the aim of this blog is offering you some pieces of advice in such a new experience and encouraging you in your Spanish choice. We will show how students’ life in Alicante is.

Who is behind the screen? Why are he, she or they writing this blog? Actually we are two Erasmus students from Alicante, Elena and Luis, living in Norwich for some months and who write in order to encourage UEA students to live their experience abroad in the University of Alicante, our home university. We’ll show why Alicante or simply Spain (but please, let’s focus on Alicante) is the perfect place for studying, living and enjoy your year abroad. We are going to also work with a parallel blog, Vida Universitaria, in which you will find some things about UEA for Spanish people who had been encouraged to get there.

We both hope you'll enjoy this blog, participate and post a lot of comments!